Bio of James Freeman DOBSON, (b.1857), Faribault Co., MN
=========================================================================
USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information
on the Internet, material may be freely used by non-commercial entities,
as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is
obtained from the contributor of the file.
These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or
presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to
use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written
consent of the contributor, OR the legal representative of the submitter,
and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent.
If you have found this file through a source other than the MNArchives
Table Of Contents you can find other Minnesota related Archives at:
http://www.usgwarchives.net/mn/mnfiles.htm
Please note the county and type of file at the top of this page to find
the submitter information or other files for this county.
FileFormat by Terri--MNArchives
Made available to The USGenWeb Archives by: Deana Steel
Submitted: Jan 2003
=========================================================================
BIOGRAPHY:
James Freeman Dobson was born to Joseph Dobson and Jane Richardson on
October 10, 1857, in Elkhart county, Indiana. He was the second of
fourteen children.
At age 7 in 1864, James came to Minnesota in a covered wagon with his
parents and four sisters. They settled on a farm two miles south of
Blue Earth.
After receiving his education James entered into employment in the
W. O. Dustin flour mill in Elmore where he learned the milling trade.
James continued in his work as miller until it’s close down several
years later.
James married to Ada Alberta Odell on August 10, 1887, in Blue Earth.
Ada, known as Alberta was born in Easton, Minnesota on March 9, 1967.
Alberta was a petite woman with dark hair and brown eyes. She was
accomplished in fine needlework creating lacy trims for her families
clothes. She also baked bread with the milled samples her husband
brought home from work. Alberta preferred white or bleached flour
opposed to the darker “Red Dog stuff”.
The following year they were blessed with a daughter, Pearl Prudence
Dobson, born June 4, 1888, in Blue Earth.
Their second child, Freeman was born on July 30, 1893 in Elmore.
Shortly after, James moved his wife and children to Armstrong, Iowa,
where he worked as a miller until his brother, George offered him
wealth in the West. The family traveled to Santa Barbara, California.
There was no riches and after four years operating a harness
shop the Dobson’s returned to Minnesota. Alberta’s poor health was
one of the Dobson’s reasons for returning.
James helped move the mill in Elmore to Dundas but Alberta refused to
move with it. James oversaw the mill operations for one year before
returning to his wife and children. Upon his return, James bought a
tract of land and built a one room home from hewn felled trees on
the land.
Because of Alberta’s poor health three infants were lost before Hallet
was born on September 5, 1907 nineteen years after his sister, Pearl’s
birth.
James changed trades and worked for the Elmore Tile Factory until he
was forced to retire because of his health and age.
Sadness hit the Dobson family when the older son, Freeman died from a
cold that developed into double pneumonia on December 12, 1936. Again
tragedy struck when Alberta was forced to bed experiencing complications
from a goiter that had troubled her most of her life.
Many Dobson family photos and treasures are on display at the Faribault
County Historical Museum. The information here was retrieved from
several local newspaper articles and obituaries.
OBIT:MRS. JAMES DOBSON DIED ON TUESDAY
Aged Elmore Lady Passed Away on January 18th From Goitre Illness
Mrs. J.F. Dobson, aged 70, a resident of Elmore for over
thirty-five years passed away at her home in West Elmore on Tuesday
morning, January 18th, at 4 o'clock a.m. Although Mrs. Dobson had been
troubled with a goitre for many years her condition did not become
serious until ablut a week ago when she was forcen to go to bed. From
that time on she gradually grew weaker until the end came early Tuesday
morning.
Ada Alberta Odell was born at Easton, Minn., on March 9th, 1867,
where she spent her girlhood days. On August 10, 1887 at Blue Darth,
Minn. the deceased was united in marriage to James F. Dobson. To this
union three children were born: Mrs. Pearl Penn of Elmore, Freeman who
died Dec 12, 1936, and Hallet Dobson who lives at home. The family
resided on a farm near Blue Earth for a number of years, but for over
thirty-five years they have made their home in Elmore. The deceased was
also a member of the Methodist church.
Funeral services will be held at the home at 1:30 p.m., Friday,
January 21st, and at the Methodist Church at 2 p.m., with Rev. S. T.
Mondale, peraching the funersl sermon. Interment will be made in the
Elmore cemetery. BIOGRAPHY: In April 1856, an uncle of Pearl's father,
came from the east by way of Indiana and Wisconsin, locating north of
town about 4 miles, causing the first settlement hereabouts to be named
Dobson. It was several years later, a Minnesota legislator changed the
name Dobson to Elmore and that's US.
The fascination of ferreting historical facts! Every time I cross an
elder's threshold, my thinking takes flight with the mystery mixed up in
the most unexpected places. In her collection of pictures, Pearl has one
of Olga Holt in a billowy blouse, black taffeta skirt,
hair-do-high pompadour, as she sits on the front steps of her parental
home(the big white house on the corner looking NW to Wise's Station).
Olga Holt Maland, of concert singing fame. Well, let's start at the
beginning: Pearl Dobson was born on June 4, 1888, about
3 miles south of Blue Earth in the Pitcher-Potter neighborhood, known to
many as "hog's back" because of the land contour (high clay cliffs
framing the river, rambling through fertile farm acres). Next, we saw
her about age 3, cute as a bug's ear in a plaid dress, only child of the
James Dobson living about where Fred Luckow lives today. Just big enough
to run away, down the hill, across the street to Holt's, where Olga, age
4 or 5, had such beautiful dolls. And as many times as her mother came
after, paddled good and pleaded"please stay home", soon after, she'd be
right back with the Olga dolls. (Later in life she
named one of her children Olga.) Not long after, Pearl had a little
brother Freeman, who lived; while Olga had 2 brothers, Carl and Conrad,
who did not live past the age of about one year. Hallet
Dobson arrived many years later, so on the fine old family portrait
there are just the 4: father with well-tended handle bars; Mother's
blouse, Pearl's dress and Freeman's shirt front, all frilly with
hand-stitched ruffles that were a fright to iron, starch stiff, but
picturesque.
Someday, she said she intends to add that photo to many other
treasures that belonged to the Dobson's; now on exhibit in the Faribault
County Historical Building. Her first year in school was at
Armstrong, Iowa. Then on her 8th birthday, father's brother George W.
Dobson, who has his name on an awning, as Real Estate and Insurance
Agent, Santa Barbara, California, wrote for them to "come west and get
rich". (In this area her father was a miller.) Out there his brother
homed he would be a contractor, building homes. It didn't
develop that way: he had a harness shop instead. Miller, carpenter,
harness maker: such the versatile skills of the average man those days.
Her uncle had a couple oil wells and a share in a gold stake. Another
uncle was digging silver from the hills in Colorado, none of
which found its way to Pearl or her family in the needy years that
followed.
On account of her mother's health, they returned to Minnesota. Pearl
had 4 years of school at Santa Barbara, California -- next, 3 years at
Blue Earth where father was, again, a miller. For longer than that, he
was Elmore's miller, bringing home samples of the flour he made, for
Mother to bake biscuits. Although she could make good bread from most
any, some brands were darker than others, her baking likewise until she
made a complaint about "that Red Dog stuff, let's
have something lighter" and so it was he named his new brand "White
Pearl". (The mill was gone when we moved to Elmore and somehow I always
thought it burned.) Pearl says not. Her father helped tear it down and
move it lock, stock and barrel to Dundas. Mother wouldn't move with it,
so he was only there a year. Their daughter was one of
the village teen-agers in the years of Shoemakers, Smiths, Blondins,
Wards. Rose Shomaker was her favorite friend and Rose's father was
Elmore's jeweler. The family lived in the house on the school grounds,
east, where the Rev. Nolte folks lived later and subsequently, Rev.
Kitzmanns. I thought I had seen and heard about every establishment on
the Westside, but Pearl came with a real
shocking fact, in print: "Interior of the Tabernacle" by "Emerson Bros."
A postcard. In Anna Young's history we learned of Elmore's westside
hospital, better known as the "pest house" for contagious patients.
Somewhere south of the Tile Co., that. And the Tabernacle,
too, was on what is now Tile Co. area. Seating capacity looked to be
about 200 (long, high back pews) the view taken from the rear. Across
the front in large lettering and fancy, "Get Right With God". Moody was
the minister; Lowry sang, as did Pearl, Rose and many more youth, in the
choir. It was there she was baptized and accepted into membership of the
church. (According to Pearl, the most benevolence shown by any
individual on those same square feet of ground, these later years, was
that of Dick Ludeman, as Mgr. of the Tile Co. for 10 years: "a good man"
she said.) Her brother Hallet has worked at the Tile Co. for many, many
years as did her third husband, Hugo Sleper.
Her formal schooling at an end, she worked out in the home of
Chesleys, half way between here and Blue Earth. Later, for John
McQuaries, the banker (who lived where Martha Oldenburg lives) and
Mrs. W. O. Dustin. (Was she nice to work for?) "Well, yes, but strange;
for all the wealth they had, my orders were to slice the bread, one
slice only, for "no matter who" at the table." (And to the daughter of
the miller, the flour supply had never seemed so pinched.)
In October, 1908, at the age of 20, Pearl married Gus Ferch. Gus was
Fred Holt's right-hand man at the Elmore Depot, where Holt inspected
passenger coaches and Gus cleaned and repaired them. The
Dobson home was where Hallet Dobson lives today, near Wards (Bernard
Kleindls). Millie (Ward) Emerson was a few years younger than Pearl,
those neighbor days back in the 19 teens. In another picture Ole Veum
and Gus Ferch were playing checkers on the Dobson lawn and Ole was
winning. (I could tell) his chair tipped back on 2 legs, his smile
Yaa-wide. Gus, however, was good, too, at most everything he did; really
a handy man, as was his son Paul, almost expert at anything he
undertook. Between 1910 and 1925, Mr. and Mrs. Ferch had 6 children:
Esther, still single, works in a Nursing Home in Story City; Albert, we
know locally; Olga, married, lives in Des Moines, had no family, but
raised her sister, Annie's, 6, after Annie disappeared mysteriously
years ago and they never heard of her again. Paul, Annie and Donald,
the youngest. (There are 16 grands and 30 great grands.) The Ferch home,
is now Harold Hilpipre's and she said to me: "If that old house could
talk, what troublesome tales it would tell." Her life was not easy. Gus'
father and mother lived with them for years, so did Gus' brother,
Charley. Tiny Pearl bore her cross with few complaints: washing ,
ironing, baking, churning and the meals for the mob, all in one day's
work. Summers, an acre of garden besides another acre of cow beets for
Betsy's winter feed. One dares not print her perilous problems, but they
were plenty. Long after I was home, the rainy day of this interview, I
was still hearing her question: "Why is it some people get through this
world so easy, while others have such drudgery, tragedy and sadness?"
She well might ask it, for she had more than enough of the latter. Gus,
injured in a R.R. accident, died 5 years later of cancer. Time passed,
then music in her ears, she re-married. Mr. Penn was a piano tuner and
they traveled into all of Iowa, southern Minnesota, one winter in
Oklahoma. When Mr. Penn passed away, she sold her old home and
married Hugo Sleper. He owned property. That promised to be a good
future for her, but the 20 years they had together were marked by more
tragedy, in his grown-up family, as well as hers.
The worst, perhaps, when her son Donald and his wife, both so young,
were burned in a Blue Earth fire, in 1948. A relative had to identify
the remains and that retching requirement fell to his
brother Paul who thereafter seemed to fall apart and fade away, an early
death. (Bread but no butter and a bed to sleep in; a minute to smile,
and hour to weep in. A pint of joy to a peck of trouble; dare to be gay
and the groans come double -- that's the story of Life!) One of those
years Pearl stumbled and fell, breaking her back in 2 places. "Baking
the cast on hurt the most", after that, 13 weeks in a cocoon and too
much time to think. A second serious fall, splintered
her right elbow. Recovery, good: she gets around lively for her age.
Nice day like this, I'd guess you'd find her out scratching in her
flower beds, or raking the lawn. She shoveled sidewalk our long months
of winter. In the photo here, wearing glasses at 20? Now, past 80, she
can read without them, but not for long. Artificial lights make her "see
rich" -- diamonds, rubies, emeralds, but actually
nothing and it's painful! So when the sun goes down, she's all through
seeing until sunrise. Long lonesome evenings (in the dark) are followed
by endless nights. The mind will, in its dull despair, re-live the deeds
long past; Rare moments of delight that were, too beautiful to last. The
long departed you extend, re-runs in muted
tone, Memory is the only friend that grief can call its own.
Mrs. Sleper stands about 4 foot 4, but somehow she seemed 9 feet tall
to me, telling her story. The complete absence of pretense or vanity, is
precious! While other ladies might have had to "get their
hair done" this one didn't even tickle me by trying to tug a too tight
tunic down over her knees. She doesn't own one. Hers is and
old-fashioned pride in being fully dressed and with modesty such a
scarcity in 1969, that virtue demands attention. (Have you ever watched
a "wobbly wee one" reach up trying to locate Mommy's hem to hang onto?
Can't do! Fails to and falls forward (fanny high behind) little pink
paws in the dust? A firm hold on Mom's skirt gave more than one
youngster a better start in life (anciently speaking, Spock).)
Good neighbors have been a real blessing to Mrs. Sleper. She is so
thankful to be able to stay in her own home, with their assistance. Some
help with the laundry and cleaning, others with shopping and mail. It
was her neighbor, Helen Smith, who lured me aware of her Twinkle-age,
soon 81. Son Albert keeps her supplied with wood for
her cook stove, cozy comfort on cool days, few kitchens have anymore;
her "dozing" chair close by. You may have seen 8 wonders of the wide,
wide world, but have you missed the 9th? That certain gleam in dear old
eyes at a sign of recognition or compassion? Growing old, and feeling
quite forgotten! Around the Globe, so many hearts searching, for just a
touch, perhaps a word -- some Twinkles (theirs to share); How many souls
slip silently away -- alone, unheard, among the busy throng, and few
(with God) have any time to care! Welcome Pearl, to a page in our Elder
Book of Memories.
BIOGRAPHY: Article in the Elmore Eye, Minn.
By Hazel James dated April 24, 1969
Maybe this will help others on their search to turn their hearts to
there fathers.Deana Steel